Anyone trying/ struggling to maintain?

My version of maintanence is gain/lose/gain/lose/gain/lose/gain

it's horrible

hopefully someone has some good tips!

I am interested in this as well. I am 5'3" 114lbs and just changed my goals to maintain. The reason I have waited so long is because at 1300 calories I was maintaining. Now they want me at 1650 to maintain?!?! I dont know how I could maintain at 1300 and 1600 I dont want to gain!

I just reached my maintenance mode. I cannot eat all my calories because I am so used to eating so few of them I don't wanna overwhelm my body eating 2010 calories from 1200.

If you start losing weight, increase your NET. If you start gaining, decrease your NET.

Good luck finding the balance

After over 2 months, I FINALLY got the hang of it. I found that having a calorie (and weight) range works best for me. Some days I can't reach my calorie goal, but others I go over and I've maintained pretty well now for several weeks.

You could try doing a hybrid like a lose/gain phase....

Week one: eat 100-200 cals over your normal daily calories
Week two: eat 100-200 cals under your normal daily calories

and just repeat...many times when people start going into maintaining phase they will cut back their eating discipline and eat less/more. Eating less means less calories and less of a reason to hold on to your muscle mass thus your RMR drops per pound of muscle lost which then leads to fat gain if the same lowered caloric intake is being implemented.

If you have an exercise schedule, also keep track of the exercises that you do, like sets, reps, and the weight that your lifting, as it is a strong guide on whether or not your losing your muscle mass.

It is also necessary to have weekly pictures of your "problem" areas where you think fat accumulates quick, when you do a review of your maintenance phase you can quickly weed out what your problems are. Make sure you do a review every 1 to 2 months to catch anything wrong before it escalates into a bigger issue.

More or less, try to challenge yourself when you are exercising, as it is even more necessary for your body to hold on to muscle like dear life when it is being challenged.

Sorry if it seems like doing a million things at once, but if you take it one thing at a time its actually very easy to stay on track to keeping your best physique all year round!

I've been very scared about maintaining since the get go.

When I was losing I giving myself a range really helped me to succeed.
(1200 cal rock bottom, Lose X/week my target, and Maintain Goal was the high end of my range)
It was a nice slow sensible loss and I've added back calories as I got closer to the goal so I'll understand better what maintenance feels like.

Now, trying to figure out a range will work to maintain. Because I'm not really the type of person who'll be able to hit the same number day after day.

Any suggestions?

I'm in that area where I'm past my initial goal weight, but I'm still interested in losing about 5 more lbs - or not.

I've found that I'm still having a 1400 net cals, but my weight is staying static - even though it should be going down at 0.5 lbs/week.

It seems to me that eating back exercise cals keeps me at the same weight. Could be because the burn for my exercise is over-estimated in the database...

So, it seems to me that if I continue to log, and continue to have the cal deficit I currently have, I'll maintain.

I moved mine from having set at losing 1lb to.5 lbs and that has me staying at the same weight so far. I rarely go over in calories. I am trying the maintaining thing to se what will work.

I'm so small so I find that I gain when I up my calories to 1200. (usually aim for 950cals but I lose on that!) 1000 seems right for maintaining for me, but that's soooo small! I know I can't keep it up. really frustrating! especially if I go out for dinner or something and have one meal that's around 1500 I spend all week trying to lose one day!

and MFP sets my maintence at 1340! lol. they have no clue :P

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